page_title: Vehicle Assembly Building
section_title: Exterior
hierarchical_section_title: Vehicle Assembly Building / Exterior
caption_attribution_description: English: Xenon lights on the ground near the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) bathe the south wall in light, allowing workers on scaffolds (center and upper right near the NASA logo) to cover the holes with corrugated steel so the facility can be returned to performing operational activities. The VAB lost 820 panels from the south wall during Hurricane Frances, and 25 additional panels during Hurricane Jeanne. Ελληνικά: Νυκτερινή επισκευή του Κτηρίου Συναρμολόγησης Οχημάτων μετά τις καταστροφές από τον τυφώνα Φράνσις. ΝΑΣΑ Διαστημικό κέντρο Κένεντι.
context_page_description: The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, is the large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, designed to assemble the large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V and the Space Shuttle; and stack them vertically onto the mobile launcher platform and crawler-transporter. The future Space Launch System will also be assembled there.
  At 129,428,000 cubic feet it is one of the largest buildings in the world by volume. The building is at Launch Complex 39 at KSC, halfway between Jacksonville and Miami, and due east of Orlando on Merritt Island on the Atlantic coast of Florida.
  The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world, was the tallest building in Florida until 1974, and is still the tallest building in the United States outside an urban area.
context_section_description: The American flag painted on the building was the largest in the world when added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the NASA insignia in 1998. It is 209 feet (63.7 m) high, and 110 feet (33.5 m) wide. Each of the stars on the flag is 6 feet (1.83 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each of the stripes is 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.
  Work began in early 2007 to restore the exterior paint on the immense facility. Special attention was paid to the enormous American flag and NASA "meatball" insignia. The work repaired visible damage from years of storms and weathering. The flag and logo had been previously repainted in 1998 for NASA's 40th anniversary.
  The most extensive exterior damage occurred during the storm season of 2004, when Hurricane Frances blew off 850 14-by-6-foot (4.3 m × 1.8 m) aluminum panels from the building, resulting in about 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²) of new openings in the sides. Twenty-five additional panels were blown off the east side by the winds from Hurricane Jeanne just three weeks later. Earlier in the season, Hurricane Charley caused significant but less serious damage, estimated to cost $700,000. Damage caused by these hurricanes was still visible in 2007. Some of these panels are "punch-outs", designed to detach from the VAB when a large pressure differential is created on the outside vs. the inside. This allows for equalization, and helps protect the structural integrity of the building during rapid changes in pressure such as in tropical cyclones.
  The building has been used as a backdrop in several Hollywood movies including Marooned, SpaceCamp, Apollo 13, Contact, and others.
caption: Repair work after Hurricane Frances
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